Upon entering the hotel, the first thing one feels is peace and harmony with nature. We are welcomed right away by Marvin Seas, the hotel’s concierge, who cordially shows us the facilities and accompanies us during the tour. In Hotel Punta Islita, no detail is left to chance. Located in the Peninsula of Nicoya, in the community of Islita, this five-star hotel is the first hotel in Central Ameri...

What makes a sustainable business “sustainable” and why should we care? Here’s a news flash for you – we all live on the same planet Earth. In many ways we humans, and all of the living and non-living things and elements that exist on our planet, are connected. The dust storms in Africa that cause cloudy, windy, dry weather in Central America; the earthquake in Asia that causes a nuclear reacto...

Ask any fashionable Tica about designer shoes and the name Daniel del Barco immediately comes to mind. Mr. del Barco is the founder of Calzado del Barco, a footwear design and manufacturing firm in Costa Rica that is a favorite among the proud winners of the Miss Costa Rica beauty pageant. Mr. del Barco is a native of Guanacaste who spent his childhood in Playas del Coco, and he draws inspiration ...

The new specialty magazine of Costa Rica targets travelers looking for more authentic and meaningful travel experiences. It’s current, accurate and authoritative content guides readers to find the Authentic Costa Rica. Escondido, California – Vida Travel Media today launched Costa Rica Guest, a new travel magazine that showcases real and meaningful travel experiences in Costa Rica. It brings...

Source: Facebook The future of residential living in Costa Rica involves physical security, efficiency, technology, industrial design, and privacy. Lots of privacy. So much privacy, in fact, that you may never see your neighbors. You and your community will be enshrouded behind a veil of secrecy, and the brutalist architecture surrounding you will be similar to that of sci-fi films such as Aeo...

Black Friday in the US. Source: Wikimedia Commons It is no secret that close ties between Costa Rica and United States have been creating certain cultural trends in the Central American nation over the years. The Halloween and Thanksgiving Day traditions come to mind, but the rise of consumer culture in Costa Rica is a better example. In this regard, some merchants in Costa Rica are poised to ...

The ongoing supermarket and shopping plaza wars in Costa Rica are expanding to Playas del Coco in the Guanacaste province. This beach town, which has experienced incredible commercial growth in the last few years, is already awaiting development of a luxury marina for the yachting and sports fishing crowd, but that's not all. Coming soon to Playas del Coco: New shopping centers, supermarkets, bank...

Source: CocoArtsCenter.com An artist and real estate developer from Seattle has teamed up with a renowned architect to create the future mecca of arts and culture in the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Coco Arts Center is the name of this future art gallery and cultural exhibition facility, which will be located 100 meters east of Iguanas, on the northern sector of the town. This ambitious projec...

Source: Wikimedia Commons It's official: Feeding a family in Costa Rica has become an uphill economical challenge; and the incline is bound to get steeper. According to the Statistics and Census Institute (Spanish acronym: INEC), consumers in the most expensive Central American nation were hit with sticker shock in September as they visited supermarkets and pulperias. Similar to the Big Mac...

As more tourists from all over the world discover Costa Rica, they are likely to seek products closely associated with our country. Capturing this market is one of the objectives behind the marketing and branding strategy of Costa Rica's government agency in charge of tourism affairs, ICT. To this end, a handful of firms are finding success on the world's most popular online retailer. As it sta...

Local cable companies on Monday announced that they have to pull the US television channel, NBC, off the air in Costa Rica. The cancellation is effective today, Oct 1. The order came from the NBC television network, telling Tigo, CableTica, CableVision, Claro TV and Telecable, they must stop broadcasting the NBC signal. At Tigo (formerly Amnet), ABC was moved down the dial to NBC’s position ...

While the Interlinea or intersectoral buses are readying to roll, with the aim to ease the traffic chaos in San José, be ready for worse times as taxi drivers opposed to the new service ready to take to the streets in protest. The Unión de Taxistas Costarricenses (Costa Rican Taxi Drivers Union) objects to the interliena bus operation which is scheduled for next week, with routes between Escazu...

Trade barriers between the EU, Costa Rica and El Salvador will be lifted as of 1 October 2013, when the trade pillar of the EU–Central America Association Agreement enters into application with these countries. The EU and Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama have been applying the Agreement since 1 August. Guatemala is finalizing procedures to allow for provisional application soon. This ambitious trade...

The Interlinea – intersectoral bus routes of San José – got closer to reality yesterday with the publishing in La Gaceta of the government decree reviving the plan that stalled in 2008. The Consejo de Transporte Público (CTP) now has three working days to put the plan into action, with the objective of providing relief to the traffic congestion cause by the temporary closure of the Circunvalaci...

Los Suenos. Source: Wikimedia Commons A significant drop in sports fishing tourism and the global financial crisis are to blame for causing investors to shy away from marina projects in Costa Rica. According to a recent report by business journalist Ana Cristina Camacho Sandoval of El Financiero, out of 21 marina projects that filed for permits in 2007, only nine remain -and they are all stall...

San José Costa Rica has the largest per capital density of fast food outlets in the world, according to restaurant chamber. 45% of Cámara Costarricense de Restaurantes (CACORE) – Costa Rican Chamber of Restaurants – member restauranteurs consider the biggest challenge of their business is the current oversupply. The wave of openings of restaurant chains and individual locations occurring in th...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on how Gollo and the Ministry of Health are working together to fight dengue fever in Costa Rica. Mauricio Monge, manager of chainstore Gollo's Grecia outlet, was freed early Saturday after being held hostage by four criminals who attempted to rob the store Friday night. The quartet surrendered themselves to police after five tense hours of negotiation w...

Normally, you don’t see tough, radical conservationists attending lectures by land developers. But there they were, 100 strong, from the Nature Conservancy, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and from all over Latin America – all raptly listening to how land development can actually preserve forests. Nervous before his formidable audience, Guillermo Piedra Gonzalez e...

Moody's Investors Service lowered its outlook on Costa Rica to negative, citing worries about the Central American nation's rising debt burden and legislative logjam to address those woes. The ratings firm said large fiscal deficits and a rising debt burden are the main risks to Costa Rica's credit ratings. Though the government debt burden remains lower than average for its ratings group, i...

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your business press release, please contact us. Today, the Costa Rica Tourism Board announces goCostaRica, a new travel iPad app created by advertising agency 22squared and developed by MaxMedia. The app allows travelers to explore Costa Rica through a selection of videos, photos and interactive maps. Users can also build their own Precatio...

The "green season" months of September and October are often equated with limited opportunities for work, and at times transportation hardships due to flooding, which can be a major financial burden on residents here in Guanacaste Costa Rica. With this added stress, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The negative health effects, both physical and emotional, that result from stress around money have...

As previously published in The Costa Rica Star last month, Hard Rock Cafe will be opening a location in Guanacaste Costa Rica, either Playas del Coco or Tamarindo. Which follows on the coat tails of a planned multi-million dollar marina project in the area. According to Gustavo Araya, a partner of the Hard Rock Cafe franchise in Costa Rica, the possibility of opening one of the firm’s restauran...

Source: Wikimedia Commons In the wake of powerful American brands Hard Rock Cafe and Starbucks increasing their presence in Costa Rica, the iconic Florida restaurant chain Hooters is ready to begin development of its latest franchise in the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish acronym: GAM). The new location, which is scheduled to open in 2014, will the be the sixth Hooters restaurant i...

Today, Friday, a dozen U.S. Universities will make academic presentations at the Crowne Plaza (Coribici) Hotel, in La Sabana, as a part of the International Student Network. Undergraduate presentations will be made from 6pm to 8pm and postgraduate from 7pm to 9pm. Visitors to the fair will find information regarding student fees, admission processes, travel documents needed and possible scholar...

The Costa Rica Star previously reported in 2011 on the Haciendas of the Rich and Famous, which included Mel Gibson's house for sale. If you have $29.75 million laying around and want to own 500 acres of pristine, private forest in Costa Rica then Mel Gibson wants to hear from you. The controversial actor has listed his ‘Playa Barrigona’ estate that is located on the Nicoya Pennisula. The e...

A plane on its way to Miami International Airport from Costa Rica Thursday had to make an emergency landing after the pilot reported smoke on board. American Airlines flight 1204, which departed Costa Rica around 11 a.m., was diverted from it’s route to MIA, landing safely at the Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport in San Andreas, Columbia, according to the Federal Aviation Administrati...

More than 80 percent of Central Americans feel that prices of basic goods are constantly rising and 73 percent say that they have a limited budget for making purchases, according to a market study by Consumer Watch 2013 released Tuesday. The survey carried out by the Kantar WorldPanel company last February and March among 3,000 homes in the six countries on the isthmus found that the issues of ...

The teak wood plantation of Panamerican Woods, located in the mountains of Santo Domingo between Samara and Carrillo Beach, is out of mature trees and has dismissed some of its employees while waiting for more trees to mature. Martin Barquero Perez, manager of the plantation, assured that the project is sustainable and continues but that they will have to wait four or five years for more trees ...

Source: Cosechas CR Coming to a fridge near you: Delicious frozen smoothies made from a careful combination of kiwi fruit, watermelon and red grapes mixed in water; or maybe orange, peach and mango mixed with vanilla ice cream or yogurt. Sound familiar? They are beverages designed by the Cosechas chain of Costa Rica. After an explosive growth phase experienced between 2008 and 2012 in Costa...

Spurred by the closure of the Circunvalación between Hatillo 8 and Pavas, the government has put forth a plan to ease the traffic chaos of San José, with flexible work hours for all government employees. Starting Thursday (19th) all public servants – save for hospital, police and emergency response units like the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and Bomberos (fire department) – will work from 7am to 3pm, ...

A Wave Pool in an unrelated Wet and Wild Park Over the last few decades, surfing has been a major attraction for visitors arriving in Costa Rica. The strong sets at Jaco Beach in the Central Pacific and Salsa Brava in the Southern Caribbean will test the skill of board riders, and the clean, smooth conditions often seen at Witch's Rock and other breaks in Guanacaste make Costa Rica a prime sur...

Why do most expats form a corporation (sociedad anonima or S.A.) in Costa Rica? Is it just because attorneys want to make extra legal fees? The truth is that a large percentage of the assets and bank accounts controlled by foreigners are owned by their local corporations that mostly act as holding companies, but is it really necessary? Let’s first look at the pros that would justify creating a ...

The Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, Anabel Gonzalez, said the Special Economic Zone (EEZ) that China and Costa Rica are implementing in Costa Rica, could be underway “in under a year.” This was stated by Gonzalez in an interview with EFE in Beijing, after inaugurating the Forum ‘Foreign investment and Tourism Opportunities in Costa Rica’. The minister is visiting in China to promote...

Bank customers who do not update (actualicen in Spanish) their personal information with their local bank, within the next three months, could face possible closing of their accounts. The Asociación Bancaria Costarricense (ABC) – Costa Rican banking association – is asking customers of public and private banks to update as soon possible. The measure is in prevention of bank fraud, money lau...

At the north end of Jacó in Costa Rica, towering cranes dominate the skyline as construction of the $48 million Croc's Casino Resort advances at lightning speed. On Wednesday morning, I stopped by Croc's sales office on Avenida Pastor Diaz to meet with Rory Hascall, President and Chief Operating Officer. I have barely set my foot in the door when the VP of marketing rushes over to warmly gre...

Costa Rica is known for its rainforests, beaches, nature and biodiversity. True, indeed. But do you know that Costa Rica is the most innovative country in Latin America? Or that the Central American nation has celebrated well over a half-century of peace with no military forces? Or that it is home to a highly-educated society with thriving export and technology industries, and fast-growing fore...

Avianca’s closure of its hub in Costa Rica has opened up opportunities for other carriers, particularly US carriers and Panama-based Copa. The Latin American airline group significantly downgraded its operation at the Costa Rican capital San Jose in late 2Q2013 as it cut five routes and reduced frequency on three others. Avianca previously considered San Jose as one of its four hubs but now calls ...

“Complicado y interrumpido” (complicated and disrupted) were the words of one television commentator yesterday morning in describing traffic on the west side of San José. In reality it affects the entire city as a whole. This is the second morning of another 60 or so that will be abnormal for drivers of the Circunvalación. It is also the second day when a tractor trailer, weaving through the na...

Every Canadian knows that “the Mounties will always get their man”. But yesterday, for four Canadians in Costa Rica, it wasn’t the long arm of the Red Coats rather, it was Costa Rica’s judicial police known as the OIJ. In a quick action by agents of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), four Canadian men identified by their last names Shane, Trevin, Landed and Robinson, where taken in...

A computer hacker was able to alter the online system of a private bank in Costa Rica to buy and sell dollars at extreme exchange rates, making away with more than ¢200 million colones (US$400,000 dollars) over a period of four months. Francisco Segura, head of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), explained that the hacker, who had an account with the bank, was able to change the exch...